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Meeting Minutes: March 16, 2008

Financially, pretty wealthy. For a small chapter, spends about $4,00 a year, have about $12,00. In the past, did a lot with high school scholarships. Now, trying to create a program to expand people in the newsroom.

Program initiated this year, fund a minority intern in the newsroom; hope to expand into other mediums.

Big teleconference of all AAJA and the affect of layoffs. Hope to divert funds to some of those people.

This year, bringing in an Asian summer intern into the Oregonian newsroom.

Amy W.: Back story: drifted away from high school scholarships, not hear back from the recipients. Felt could spend money better on retention. Want to give scholarships to people who will give back.

Started with The Oregonian, Kyle Iboshi: VP of broadcast; depending on pool of candidates, etc.

Thinking about events this year: mostly fundraising, and partly community-based, and partly journalism-based. Hope to recalibrate with what we want to do this year; accomplish our mission; and everything’s up in the air. Nothing’s set yet. First meeting and nothing is tied. No banquet this year, unless members want to join Asian Reporter banquet.

Maya: fall event, with a cocktail hour with a raffle? What did you think of funds raised?

Amy H.: had spent a lot of time collecting items. It’s a lot of work having a silent auctions. Have to get the five things. Would like to step away silent auction. Think about raising money in a more creative kind of way. Technically, all we need is $2,000 to break even. And then we’ll be safe. If we raise $3,000, then we can give away an award. Not a lot of overhead, not a spendy chapter. Can throw four small events and fundraise that way.

Jason brought up a way to contract media workshops. Media access workshop: put on an event and funded by a grant and a community where media professionals give a workshop for those in the community. A lot of ethnic media attend.

Maya: Try to target small, nonprofits. Surprisingly, larger ones come in, like American Red Cross. The idea is for smaller, nonprofits to help them out.

Amy H. Workshops are usually well-attended and utilizes our best assets. And a lot of community organizations who want to get names and missions out there. Primarly, a huge part of what we do to serve our community.

Elizabeth: Question: When was the last time we did it? And how often?

Amy H: year before last.

Maya: The national AAJA office is trying to revamp the effort, and come up with the handbook. And put it on in conjunction with the Hawaii convention in 2006.

Amy H. Jason was able to get – for four events – funding from Umqua Bank for $2,000 approximately to put on these four events. We need to decide whether they’d be scheduled. And thinking of doing one at Asia Fest in May.

Eugene? Salem? In Eugene — Lane County Fairgrounds.

Amy H. Get more information from Jason, but think about scheduling the first one in May. Gear up for the first event. Huge Asian Community event at May 10.

Maya: Good location, especially if they’re out there anyway.

Amy W.: Could also be just a booth, handing out information.

Amy H. Booth not as effective. Looking for advice on health care, or transit. And had to pay money to be in Asia Fest. And better to be there for a media access workshop.

This year, in terms of mission, will be well-accomplished, to give back to our industry and help our outreach in the community. Fundraising and social networking.

Sent out a survey last year, and by far and large, response from most people was that they really love AAJA because we’re a lot of fun and love to socialize.

We’re known as the most fun chapter to hang out with. We always know the Portland chapter. Me, Jason Lim, Kyle Iboshi. Also make sure we’re socially networking with people.

Maya: the pre-Unity picnic is good. And a lot of events have morphed over the years. For many years, what we did, we had a picnic and invited people from NABJ, NAHJ, etc. And especially it’s nice to do in a Unity year. We invite people.

Amy H. $13,000, and will have $10,000 after going to the intern. Amy H. committed stipend to the intern. Jason is getting some help for national meeting. Anyone who gets a scholarship needs to volunteer.

Maya: Every chapter is required to provide volunteers. We provide stipends and then provide those volunteer hours.

Amy H.: The fees are set by the Unity board. The chapter can help give stipends. And for accommodations.

Talk about Camp AAJA:

Elizabeth: Attendees were almost all officers and we spent two and a half days at Poynter Institute. Idea sharing. Beneficial to hear what other chapters were doing.

-Learned how to directly raise funds. Asking for corporations, and keep in mind about ethical issues to ask money. And keep in mind, but Oregonian withdrew money from AAJA, because of a joint support from other organizations.

Elizabeth: can figure out whom can ask from whom. And contacts from Intel. Go with foundations. Just thought it was a good way to make a lot of money with minimal effort, talk to them in person.

And both of us are new and it was inspiring to see the other chapters. They were active doing events, being engaged. Important reminder, and the struggles everyone faces. It was motivating to hear it.

Also had a couple of things to suggest: for me, the two focuses: membership and something more valuable: the journalism-public service oriented. Think more about getting to know other APA leaders and organizations and their issues, and provide more voice to them through our jobs. Such a great forum through AAJA to do that. Wanted to more APA events. And set up meeting with APA leaders, have forums and have a place ot tlak about APA issues.

Amy H. Sho Dozono, Asian mayoral candidate. Have a candidates forum.

Maya: And get involved with media access workshops, can get into that energy of both listening and reaching out.

Amy H. Have an idea, and so open to ideas, and want to organize, and just need people to help, just ask. More than happy to facilitate. My goal this year, pass on AAJA to the next person steering this ship. And people can do that with a healthy budget and a lot of strong, new leaders. And AAJA is really based on young people in the profession, who has the energy to carry it out.

Maya: Other people, if we approach them with a defined task, and Amy mentioned Joann Eng, we can brainstorm.

Amy H. Decide what it is.

Amy H. Want to vote on doing media workshop May 10. Pretty easy, on a Saturday. Another thing, want to focus on some kind of fundraising tactic. And round up volunteers for standing commitments.

Every year, we judge the Chinese American scholarships. High school. Good community service for our community memberships.

Elizabeth: had more themes to focus on.

Amy H. really want to reach out to the Chinese newspaper here. They could be a source. They’re Portland Chinese Times. Could be a source of recruitment. Vietnamese newspaper. Must be Korean. Need to make an effort to reach out to.

Elizabeth: the other thing to act on is having a better Web presence. How do we update? Through Ed Madrid?

Amy H. Website was built through Amy W’s brother.

Amy W. What if we set it up through Blogger?

Elizabeth: That’s what other chapters are doing.

YuShing: I would suggest Word Press.

Amy H. I can set it up this week.

Elizabeth: That would be perfect. Quick way to get the word out. And coupled with that, we should start through Word Press to do a google or yahoo listserve to communicate through the group. Something we could do right away.

Maya: Great to develop a database and have columns. And helpful to pass on a little data blurg who may or may not be a member. And put in Sho Dozono, former banquet speaker.

Amy W: Shoot out an e-mail.

Maya: Maintain list of people. Roster of names and organizations.

Elizabeth: More related to professional development.

Peter: And tie it to community service.

Jennifer: how do people become members? And what does it mean to be a member?

Amy H: the people here are active in the chapter, or we’ve been benefactors/beneficiaries of the organization. Scholarships, programs. In the workforce and need some kind of support system, and a lot of AAJA recruiters, and hiring people, you’ve got your foot in the door.

Maya: And the connection to national is important. Overall career guidance is hard to tap each other, but you can develop mentors nationally, and have critiques for both broadcast and print.

Amy W: When I first got to The Oregonian, having the AAJA connection made it easier to talk to Peter Bhatia.

Maya: And the big focus this year for the convention, is knowing there’s a push of variety different media. To do more multi-media, and we hear there’s limited training and provide more of that.

Bilal: Could hook up with audio. VOLUNTEER.

Amy H: set up a multimedia workshop.

Youshing: Take pictures for the Web.

Amy H: Do it within the next month, before Bilal leave. And interested in writing, that’s what we do.

None of it is centered around fundraising. Want to spend for Unity, and save it for the fall. Have us start thinking about ways to make money?

Maya: Too hokey to do a bake sale?

Amy W: Does a really successful fundraiser, and do a dinner. And in our day care’s case, we could do a more elaborate version. $5 a head, and everyone brings a dish.

Amy H: More informal. The Asian reporter banquet is like 5 hours long. And another idea I had a big rummage sale; get people to donate to a big rummage sale. And all the proceeds go to AAJA. Do it in the summer, and will donate it in that sense.

Elizabeth: How often are we going to meet this year?

Amy H: Usually we meet formally twice a year, and usually we’re well-connected. And happy to have another meeting post-Unity. From here on out, will be talking to each other on group levels.

Usually for every event, have three or four people. But if you want to have more meetings, we can. Generally, looking at the way this year is structured, probably get through and before Unity barbecue, have a pre-Unity meeting before the barbecue. Usually plan to have one Portland-chapter Unity event, have dinner or drinks and probably plan that out. We’ll rest after Unity, and then talk about fundraising for the rest of the year.

Maya: want to explain. Used to be on the governing and advisory board. I’m the national co-chair for the Media Watch committee. People submit complaints about news coverage and other things. Funny enough, the last six months, been really busy with college publications. I’m the Portland rep. Welcome anyone else to join. If you have concerns nationally or locally about media coverage or lack of or terminology, just send me an e-mail. Keep us apprised of what we’re doing.

Last year, with the Virginia Tech shootings, early on, they started the guy Cho Seung Hui, last name first. It stemmed when it was finally unraveled. A single guy in the Korean patrol said it should be the other way. This guy had been living in the United States his whole life. Quickly, the LA Times went to the Seung Hui Cho, but something we can bring to the experience. It took AP for almost 5 days. Early on, before his identity were known, the most high-profile thing we did. Those were the kinds of things we did. Sometimes, we do an internal letter. Sometimes we post letters or advisories, some kind of larger, illustrated example.

Remember the producer of Boomerang? And I got shouted down.

Elizabeth: I can volunteer to be on Media Watch.

Amy H. Probably a few hours. Pretty interesting.

Amy W: Have a request from National to solicit stuff for Unity. Trying to focus on quality items. They want a high-profile media items. Front page or golf with Peter Bhatia? It actually raised a lot of money. Wine tasting with Sandy Rowe? National stuff.

Will ask Sandy Rowe about wine.

Board titles:

Amy W and Amy H: co-presidents and treasure

Peter and Ruth: Secretary

Jason: National board rep.

Elizabeth: VP of Print

Kyle: VP of Broadcast

Maya: National Writers Workshop is in April. It’s hard to get events. It’s tough enough to get together for Portland events.

Amy H: We can introduce people. And one thing I want to do pre-Unity, is clip and resume assessing night for members.